6% of male population comparisons (Table 2). Whales of both sexes from South Africa in 1936 or 1983 were smaller than those from the Tay Estuary, Scotland, while those from the 1983 stranding were also smaller than both sexes from Japan or Chile, and Chilean whales

of both sexes were larger than those from Tasmania. No significant differences were found between whales of both sexes from the Tay Estuary, Japan, and Chile. In other examples, a significant difference in size between areas was confined to only one sex. Overall geographical patterns are difficult to establish, and perhaps should not be sought, given the sparse nature of the data and in most cases a lack of accompanying age information. Nevertheless, it appears that adult false killer whales from different areas (and even from the same area) can differ significantly click here selleck products in mean body size by as much as 0.5–0.6 m. Assuming variation in body size is genetically based and an evolved response, the observed differences in body size could be the result of any one, or a combination, of several selective forces to which the populations have been exposed in their respective environments. These include different ambient sea temperatures and differing food availabilities, especially seasonally and/or spatially—current data on the diet and feeding behavior of (particularly South African)

false killer whales are insufficient to determine whether there are differences with those from Japan. Further regional studies of growth, especially in tropical regions, are needed to clarify the issue. The growth curves constructed in this paper differed greatly from those previously published by Purves and Pilleri (1978) for a group of false killer whales stranded at Dornoch Firth, Scotland, which failed to reach an asymptote. Even though the body lengths of the oldest Scottish specimens were roughly comparable to those of the oldest Japanese specimens, their ages were much younger, 18–23 compared to 55–65 yr. The teeth from the Scottish animals 上海皓元医药股份有限公司 were not decalcified or stained, and only dentine layers were counted using a low power lens and reflected light (Purves and Pilleri 1978). Thus it seems

likely that their ages were underestimated, particularly in older animals where age is more difficult to determine accurately from dentinal layers only. Consequently the differences between the growth curves of the Scottish sample and our samples from South Africa and Japan were methodological rather than real. A marked geographic difference between our samples was the lower incidence of pregnant animals and juveniles of presumed suckling age in the South African sample. While this could be attributed to a temporary loss of fertility in the population (or a biased representation of reproductive classes in the stranding), the significantly lower ovulation rate in the South African whales suggested that these alternative explanations are unlikely, and that the St.